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Benny Storms

2/23/19

Professor Pinto

Second draft

Why we shouldn’t allow oil drilling in Alaska’s wildlife refuge

Alaska is one of the most beautiful and is the most underdeveloped state in the United

States. But Alaska has oil and where there is oil there are oil companies who want to drill for it

and are willing to do so at any cost to become rich. If these oil companies are going be allowed

to drill, process and transport oil in Alaska’s wildlife refuge area it will ultimately disturb the

pristine wilderness where many species of animals and plant life live. It’s just not right. We

shouldn’t be drilling in Alaska untouched land because its is harmful to the environment and it

will cost animals to lose their habitat. All this land that the oil companies are about to take is

public land that belongs to all Americans. We should be protecting this land for all Americans to

be able to enjoy.

Oil drilling is harmful to the environment and it will be no different in Alaska. According to

wilderness .org “Oil operations on land require drilling fluids that are injected into the

wellbore to lubricate the drilling bit. These fluids are supposed to be captured but are very

often spilled and splashed around the well pad”. These fluids are very toxic and harmful to the

environment and will have long term effects on the surrounding areas. Exposure to these fluids

have been found to have very bad health effects on humans including being found to be cancer
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causing. The landscape that surrounds the oil drilling changes as well. According to

wilderness.org oil drilling “ strips the environment of vegetation, increases erosion which could

lead to land slides and flooding, disturbs the lands ground surface and seriously fragments once

unspoiled wildlife habitats”. If they start to drill in Alaska’s wildlife refuge, they will start to

pave roads, bring in heavy machinery and pipeline which will further disrupt the land. All of the

land that the oil companies will use in the drilling, transport and exporting of oil will be changed

forever. No longer will the land be untouched and pristine. This is one of the ways that oil

drilling will impact the environment.

Oil drilling will greatly impact the animals around it in many ways. It can destroy the

habitats that they live in and can have major health effects on the animals themselves.

According to wilderness.org “ spills can damage animals organs such as liver, kidney, spleen or

brain and it causes cancer , immune system suppression and reproductive failure.” These are

the health effects that oil drilling can have on the management still intends to hold an oil and

gas lease sale in 2019 that will open up exploration of the wildlife refuge’s coastal plain on

approximately 1.6 million acres of the Artic Refuge.” The 1.6 million acres proposed to be used

is a large portion of the 19.3 million total acres of the Arctic Refuge, and is an enormous

amount of land that will be disrupted. If the oil companies take over that land it will destroy so

much habit that the animals that live in these areas will be forced to relocate. animals that

surround the drilling sites. According to the latimes.com “the interior department of land If the

animals don’t relocate, they have the risk of all of suffering from possible health impacts of

being exposed to a drilling site. The refuge is home to many animals such as polar bears,

wolves, migratory birds, porcupine and caribou. Climate change has made the area even more
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delicate and have driven polar bears to spend more time in dens along the refuge’ costal plains

right where the oil companies plan on drilling. These predicted changes from oil drilling could

potentially be very bad for polar bears that are already listed as a vulnerable animal on the

vulnerable species list. These are some examples how oil drilling can affect the animals in

Alaska’s wildlife refuge.

Other animals that would effected by the drilling for oil in Alaska’s artic wildlife

refuge is the porcupine caribou. That largest herd of these caribou in the world live in

the artic refuge and the drilling for oil will make them have to relocate. The Native

Alaskans depend on these caribou as a vital source of food and have relied on these

caribou for hundreds of years. This will force these natives to have find a new food

source or have move to follow the caribou ether way they should not have to do ether.

According to culturalsurival.org “The plain is also an area where polar bears make their

dens, a nesting place for 135 species of migratory birds, and a year-round home to the

prehistoric musk oxen. Wolves, white owls, and arctic foxes also live in the refuge. All o

these animals will have to find new homes if companies come in to drill for oil. These

animals need to be protected us as humans already destroy to much habit and where

they are living is untouched land that needs to be to protected at all cost that is how it

will effect the animals that live in Alaska’s Artic National refuge area.

The oil drilling will affect the people of Alaska and Americans. One way is that that

land that they are planning to drill on is public land that is own by all Americans and if

they start to drill that would no longer be the case. This means that you will not be able

to go there and see all of the beautiful scenery that the wildlife refuge has to offer. All
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of the infrastructure needed to be put in place for the drilling of oil will disrupt views

and will lead to less tourism in Alaska. According to sciencing.com “ in addition to

polluting the V BTT landscape , drilling oil in Alaska disrupts its natural aesthetic

qualities. And without these beautiful landscapes there will be no tourism in Alaska”.

This tourism really helps Alaska and is a very good source of revenue for the Alaskan

people and their communities. That’s not the only way it would affect people there are

many health effects for humans from oil drilling. In many cases oil drilling causes the

release of methane gas which causes air pollution and climate change. Human exposure

to oil drilling chemicals used in the process to drill and those that are the result of the

drilling process, have been proved to cause in humans respiratory problems,

headaches, eye/ear/nose irritation, and are cancer causing. That’s how the oil drilling

can affect the Alaskan people and Americans.

Another reason to no drill for oil in Alaska is that it is it is coming close to native Alaskan

territories and they do not want these oil company’s coming on the there native land. They are

worried that once they are there they will keep moving closer and closer and maybe even force

them to move. Another reason these native Alaskans don’t want these oil companies on there

land is that it will disturb the environment that they depend on. According to npr.org “ Native

Alaskan families average annual income is 77,000 a year”. This is not enough money to sustain a

family in Alaska due to the upping of prices in Alaska because of the cost of the transportation.

This mean a lot of these families still have to rely on the land to be able to eat and drink. And if

these big companies come in and destroys the land there will be nothing left for the Natives

and they would have to greater lengths to be able to provide for their families and be able to
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get food and water. Another reason why the native people don’t want oil drilling is that it will

disrupt the natural beauty of there land. They have own this land for hundreds of year and they

do not want oil rigs and all the infostructure needed to drill for oil. They want there land in the

pristine condition that it always has been.

Another reason that we should not drill for oil in Alaska is that it would speed up climate

change. And the artic area they are trying to drill in is ground zero for climate change and it a

very fragile area. An article from ecowatch.com says “America’s Arctic Ocean is ground zero for

climate change. Drilling in the Arctic will not only promote continued reliance on  fossil fuels,

but it will also release black carbon pollution directly onto Arctic ice, accelerating the melting of

ice so many animals depend on for giving birth, raising their young, feeding, hunting and

avoiding predators. Arctic Ocean oil development undermines the Obama Administration’s

efforts to address climate change during this crucial time of transitioning our country to a

cleaner energy future.” This is say if we drill in the artic that it will speed up climate change

even more therefore melting the ice that is so vital for a verity of animals that live there. When

drilling there is a release of black carbon into the air and black carbon is terrible for the

environment and speeds up climate change. According to science.time.com “Black carbon can

have a double warming effect. As its name suggests, it warms the atmosphere directly by

intensifying the greenhouse effect, just as carbon dioxide does. But as black carbon settles on

the snow and ice of the Arctic, it darkens the ground—and that in turn causes the surface to

absorb solar energy it would have otherwise reflected back into space. This black carbon will

speed up the melting of ice in the artic. That is how drilling in the artic will effect climate

change.
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We should not allow oil drilling in Alaska for many reasons. Oil drilling is bad for the

environment and the habitat around where the drilling will occur. It has been proven to cause

many health problems in both animals and humans. The development of the land will have

major impacts on the revenue that the Alaskan people rely on due to decreased tourism along

with disrupting the natural beauty of this land. The use of these lands for oil drilling will forever

have a detrimental impact on the environment, animal and plant life, along with ill effects on

the Alaskan people and Americans. All of these reasons are why we should not drill for oil in

Alaska’s wildlife refuge area.